Confronting Bible Abuse

One
of the greatest issues facing individuals coming out of an experience with
the Worldwide Church of God and its related organizations is what many pastoral
counselors call "Bible abuse." This is an issue not limited to the Worldwide
Church of God experience which I have shared, but common also to many who
are from other Fundamentalist Christian denominations.

What is Bible abuse? Bible abuse is a form of spiritual abuse. Spiritual
abuse is when religious beliefs or practices are removed from the context
they were intended for and used as tools of discrimination or oppression
of others. For instance, the belief in divine healing is a spiritual belief
common to many of the world's faiths. Yet, in certain branches of Christianity
experiencing miraculous healing from sickness becomes a "stamp" of spiritual
accomplishment. At times, the message about this spiritual belief is turned
from "God is available to you and has the power to heal" to "The way to
be healed is to be close to God, thus if you are disabled or physically
or mentally ill, you must be sinful or lack faith." Here a spiritual belief
intended to have a positive, liberating belief, is transformed into a
tool of oppression and prejudice against a minority (the disabled).

Prejudice against a minority group works on a number of levels. At times,
it can be systemic or institutional -- for instance, the way in which
in many conservative churches, women for years were given a subservient
position to men, both in the home and at church. There were structures
created by those communities of faith that kept women in a role in which
they did not have freedom to lead, to fully express themselves, and to
realize their full potential, simply because of their God-given gender.

Prejudice can also be an expression of one's dominant culture, both
in the sense of "Southern culture," "Hispanic culture," or even a "church
culture." For instance, in the South where I grew up, in many areas inter-racial
marriage was simply "not done" and was viewed with suspicion. It went
against the cultural grain, though no longer were there laws against it.
If you married another race, you would be talked about, looked down on
by some, and at times ostracized from the family.

Prejudice of this type often becomes the worst type when lived out by
an individual in that culture -- unaware prejudice. Here people have certain
assumptions about how life should work, how others should live, which
aren't grounded so much in truth, but in the cultural or religious ideals
that were spoon-fed to them from childhood on. These notions so subtly
enter into a person's worldview that one may not realize they are affecting
one's choices.

These forms of prejudice lead to stereotyping. For instance, in the
wider community, an effeminate man is often assumed to be gay, based on
the stereotype that gay men are not in touch with their masculine side.
In fact, many men with strong traits our culture would view as "feminine"
are straight as an arrow in their sexuality and many gay men are very
macho, almost to a fault. Truth be known, even straight women do not completely
fit the mold of what our culture's concept of "femininity" is.

All of these forms of prejudice can be fed by spiritual beliefs that
are taken out of their context with the purpose, whether the person mis-using
them is conscious of it or not, of marginalizing and shaming those in
a certain minority group. This marginalizing and shaming produces what
is known as internalized prejudice -- a mistrust of one's self and often
a negative opinion, even hatred, of one's self for some extrinsic quality
that leads you to be marginalized. This happens on an emotional level
and the emotional turmoil caused by this can continue even after someone
has come to realize intellectually that God does not hate them or disapprove
of this extrinsic quality.

Bible abuse is a particular form of spiritual abuse. In Bible abuse,
select texts, taken out of their historical context, are quoted in order
to support the marginalization of individuals from certain minority groups,
whether that be the divorced, homosexuals, or those in an inter-racial
marriage. These verses are used to justify unequal and oppressive church
and community structures, to justify discrimination by individuals and
families, and end up deeply scarring those in whatever minority is being
oppressed.

Many times, the end of this Bible abuse will be serious emotional and
mental problems for the recipient of it, besides being marginalized and
oppressed. Many, many times, this will lead an individual to give up on
a life of faith altogether, turning toward atheism, agnosticism, or secular
spiritualities. I have known of people who turned toward drug or alcohol
abuse to squelch the pain that Bible abuse has caused them. Other times,
the crushing fear of God and hatred of one's self will be expressed by
resorting to irrational violence against others, whether abusing other
family members, going on a rampage of violence, or committing suicide.

Is the Bible's purpose to cause such agony in the lives of others? No!
God forbid! Scripture makes it clear that, at least to Christians, the
goal of Scripture is to witness to Jesus, who describes his own purpose
as being to "proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight
for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's
favor" (Luke 4:18-19). Scripture also tells us God does not judge us based
on extrinsic qualities like race, gender, disability, or sexual orientation
-- "[A human being] looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks
at the heart," 1 Samuel 16:7 says. And the apostle Paul writes that "There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, male nor female;
for you are all one
in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 3:28). Though every possible category of
difference people can have which they may be discriminated against (such
as sexual orientation, height, gender identity, physical disability, hair
color, hobby) are not listed here, the principle Paul is espousing points
in a direction far removed from any use of spiritual beliefs or Scripture
to condemn others for being different.

In future articles, I hope to get into more detail about how to overcome
and combat Bible abuse. Right now, I want to close by pointing out how
to identify Bible abuse being used to oppress a minority.

First, ask yourself, is this author quoting the verse out of context?
If he or she does not get into the history behind the text, whether in
the rest of that book of the Bible or through historical references, chances
are that they are.

Then, ask yourself, does this sound like the purpose is to "release
the oppressed" or to marginalize others? Since Jesus is our guide, any
interpretation that seems to be oppressing others needs to be viewed as
questionable and suspect.

Finally, ask yourself, does this reflect the wider principles of Scripture
(such as Jesus' command to love God & love others, or Scripture's acknowledgement
that God does not judge by external characteristics like race or gender
but by the heart)? If not, probably the author is mis-using the Scripture
for his or her own ends.

Whatever else you get from my article, realize that your life has worth.
Though the world may look at you as a nobody, in God's eyes you count.
You can with all confidence join in the words of the Psalmist, saying
to God, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your
works are wonderful, I know that full well." (Psalm 139:14)

Micah
Royal grew up in the Worldwide Church of God, where he was ordained
to be an elder shortly before leaving WCG to begin his own ministry to
tear down barriers of prejudice and discrimination through the Gospel
of Jesus. Micah is co-pastor of Safe
Haven Community Church, an independent interdenominational
church in Colton, CA, that has a special ministry focus on the disabled
community, racial and sexual minorities, and family members of those in
these communities.